The Colors Of Heaven

THE COLORS OF HEAVEN based on Rev.21:9-21

By Glenn Pease

Mr. Jones was having her living room painted, and she was explaining to the unsympathetic painter just what she wanted. "I want a light green blue, which will be sort of a cross between a darker blue and a light bluey blue", she said. The painter replied, "Lady, there ain't no such color. What you are describing is nothing but a pigment of your imagination." Colors may exist in our minds that do no exist in reality. But God is an artist who invites us to use our imagination to try and conceive of the beautiful colors of heaven.

You can go into most any jewelry store and see many of the gems that are seen here in the walls of the Holy City. The colors are very bright and beautiful. I bought Lavonne a pink ice ring recently, and when the sun hits it just right, it startles me with it's beauty. In the shade it is just a dull piece of matter, but in the sunlight it is a sparkling piece of beauty. This is the picture we get of heaven, and the New Jerusalem. It is transparent like glass, and there is brilliant light bouncing off millions of jewels. The beauty of this scene is beyond our grasp. Man would need all the jewels of the world just to copy a fraction of the jeweled wall described here. Dr. Criswell, who was for many years the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, tries to describe the color of heaven, in these words-

What a proliferation of color! What

incomparable, brilliant iridescence it

possesses! It looks like frozen light

in diamonds, sapphire, ruby, emerald

and pearl. It looks as if God were

mingling together the azure blue of

the sky, the surf of the sea, the

rainbow of autumnal glory, and

the fire of an august sunset.

There is no eloquence adequate to describe the color of heaven. Probably, the best we can do is to compare the experience of the 18 year old boy who was born blind, but who by surgery was made to see for the first time at age 18. One year later, reporters asked him what the most wonderful thing about seeing was, and he replied, "Color." He said he never dreamed that color was so beautiful. He had always thought of it as being like our conception of black and white with contrasts and highlights. He said the beauties of the various colored flowers fascinated him beyond all human imagination. He said everything in this world was more beautiful than he ever dreamed.

So it will be for us in heaven. It will be like the blind seeing for the first time. The colors will be brighter and more beautiful than the brightest rainbow we have ever seen in time. We will say, as did the Queen of Sheba, when she saw the glory of Solomon's empire, the half was not told me. We will say, more than likely, the hundredth or the thousandth, was not told me. But, since God has revealed some of the glory of the colors of heaven, we should do our best to try and see it as He wants us to see it.

The first thing we want to observe is the color of the people. Heaven is the ultimate in the melting pot of colors. This is implied in the gates of the New Jerusalem that face in every direction. People from every direction are welcome to enter these ever open gates, and this implies universality. But we do not need to depend upon symbolism. In Rev.7:9 we read, "After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb." It is not a matter of speculation or inference, it is a Biblical fact, stated clearly, that every color of skin will be a part of the eternal kingdom of God. Colors are not just temporary and incidental accidents of time, they are part of the color scheme of God's eternal city. The song, red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight, is right, and not a poetic fiction. Any color that you try to imagine is not in heaven, is a pigment of your imagination.

A church hired an artist to paint them a picture of Jesus with little children. When he finished it, he felt it was his best work ever. He could almost hear them singing, "Glory! glory! glory be to God on high." He was so pleased that he called the committee from the church to come and see it the next day. That night he had a dream, and saw himself walking into his studio and finding a stranger with his thumb through his artists palette painting on his picture. He rushed over and cried for him to stop for he was spoiling his work. The stranger said, "No, you have spoiled it. You have 5 colors on your palette, but you have used only one on the faces of the children. I have used the other 4 colors, for these little ones have come from many lands in answer to my call." "What call?" he asked. The stranger responded, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." Then the artist knew it was the Lord, and he suddenly awoke. He rushed to the studio, and saw all the faces were still white. It was only a dream. But he knew it was a dream with a message. He took his palette and began to paint with all the colors. When the committee came to see it they loved the picture. It was just what they wanted, something that represented the whole family of God. It takes all colors to do that. No one will feel they are the wrong color in heaven for heaven is the color of God's people, which means, it is all colors. This truth inspired me to write the poem, Heaven Is The Color You Are.